Conventional warming therapy devices typically include a platform and a one-piece hood component for covering the platform in a manner that creates is controlled environment, such as an incubation chamber. A patient receiving treatment via as warming therapy device may be positioned onto the platform and then covered via the hood component. In order to access the patient, a caretaker must typically remove the entire hood component, thereby exposing the patient to the ambient surroundings. Further, once the hood component is removed, there is nothing preventing the patient from rolling off of the platform and becoming injured.
In order to address these deficiencies, certain hood components have been configured with openings in their lateral walls, thereby enabling a caretaker to reach through the openings and access the patient without having to remove the entire hood component. Although such configurations do improve upon the conventional design, access to the patient is still very limited, and full access to the patient (e.g., for removing the patient from the platform) may still only be achieved via removing the entire hood component.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to an incubation device and a hood assembly that provides a safe incubation environment, while at the same time providing unencumbered access to a patient in a manner that does not require removal of the entire hood assembly.